Each month the contemporary art institution le Palais de Tokyo invite an artist working with sound to propose a piece for their answerphone.

My piece, Miss Time, pays hommage to the first speaking clocks born in the early 1930s, who were in fact telephone switchboard ladies, chosen for their fine elocution and stamina, who every 15 seconds, 240 times an hour, mechanically told the time to an invisible audience, regardless if anyone called or not.

Each country had it's telephone diva, known for her golden voice and accurate timekeeping. Sadly these marathon performances fizzled out in the sixties when technology made these Time Ladies redundant.


The répondeur project is curated by the journalist and critic Rahma Khazam.

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